We're rolling ahead with video: it's time to start showing you all some basic techniques and we'll start with the onion, that pungent bulbous bundle of flavor, so essential to so many cuisines.
Watch the video above, then click through for a quick run-down on onion types and the secrets to keeping your eyes dry while you chop.
The onion family is related to the lily. Dry onions, the kind we need these knife skills for (as opposed to green onions, also called scallions which benefit from a different set of moves), come in a range of sizes and colors.
There are white, yellow and red onions. White onions are most often used in Mexican cooking and turn golden yellow when saut&eactue;ed. Yellow onions have a stronger, sweeter flavor and can become quite dark in color when cooked. Yellow onions are the variety often used when caramelizing onions and French Onion Soup. Red onions, are great raw in salads, on burgers, etc., or grilled.
Vidalia onions are among my favorite in terms of flavor. These super-sweet yellow-skinned onions are only available in May and June if you're buying in season. The onions I'm dicing in the video are another variety of yellow onions called Spanish onions, which are one of the most commonly found varieties.
Of course, onions store well in dry, cool, ventilated environments, which is why onions are available year-round. Keep them out of the refrigerator unless they're already chopped. And in that case, you can keep them in a sealed container for about a week.
Last month, Nina wrote a post called Five Tips on How to Cut Onions Without Tears which is a great primer on the parts of onion dicing I don't cover in the short clip, like the part about crying. Hint: ignore the old wives' tale about holding a holding a lit match in your mouth while you chop.
• Go to post: Five Tips on How to Cut Onions Without Tears
More How To from The Kitchn
• How to Open a Durian Fruit
• How To Hold Your Knife
• How To Avoid Wasting Food
• How To Find Local Meat
• How To Cook Beans
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Great video. Even though I've worked for a cutlery company for 8 years, I just recently started using this method and I'd never go back! It's also very important to have a sharp knife using this method.
view katdono's profile
Nice job! Funny, though: of the thousands of onions i've cut, I never once thought to leave the root end on before I started, and always had a 'butt' of perfectly good onion left over at the end after I was done.
I feel like a homer (d'oh!) for not knowing already, but it's better to find out late than to live on in ignorance.
view ebcindc's profile
I too never left the root end on, I always chopped it off in the beginning. I will try it this way and see how it goes. Love this idea! Please keep doing more videos, especially on knife skills.
view wetsocks's profile
This is how I dice onions, with one difference. I don't make the horizontal cuts in toward the root after making the downward cuts. The onion already comes naturally separated into layers, so I make the vertical slices, and then just start the dicing. It naturally falls apart. Then I run the knife through the pile of dice just for good measure (sometimes!). I'm lazy, and the horizontal cuts seem extra fussy.
view gremlin's profile
I usually make the horizontal cuts before the vertical cuts because they're a little trickier and you don't want to worry about holding together the vertically sliced pieces while doing it.
view joyosity's profile
THANK YOU SO MUCH i did this tonight while making that velvety broc-holy pasta dish and it worked so well
view bmorre's profile
Niiiice!
view missjelisa's profile
Exactly what gremlin said: no need for the horizontal cuts. I can see myself easily putting the knife right through the tips of my fingers that way. Just the two types of vertical cuts are needed. Perfect dice every time. You can vary the size of the dice easily but making more vertical cuts as desired.
view scmtngirl's profile
glad to read about the horizontal cuts. i've always thought that since onions are layered, they don't need as much chopping...but tried it this way (with the horizontal cuts) this weekend, and that ended with a very badly sliced finger! (i'm clumsy.) but i'll try with just the vertical slices from here on out, and i'm sure my digits will appreciate that.
view amber77's profile
I just cut up an onion exactly as demonstrated and the first thing I thought when I'd finished was: "Oooh... that really is perfectly diced onion."
I'm sure there was even a look of astonishment on my face.
Thanks Sara Kate!
:-)
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